


(Not!Fic) Backtrack to the Start

by AnguishofMyLove



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (2010), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Baristas, M/M, Older Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Reincarnation, barista Hiccup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-16
Updated: 2014-06-16
Packaged: 2018-02-04 22:15:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1795069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnguishofMyLove/pseuds/AnguishofMyLove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>rainbowbarfeverywhere replied: it would be nice if it was a rebirth thing with the two of them /js think of it like in relatively each time period there is a hiccup and there is a jack<br/>and sometimes their relationship is different and sometimes they don't work out but in every timeline they always, always love each other (sometimes FALL in love and sometimes it's just love, plain and simple)<br/>ad wouldn't it be nice if like during ~modern times~ jack has dreams of his hiccup (well the past hiccups) and he's filled with such yearning to find his love<br/>and then he does find him and he kind of just flounders and acts like a total schoolgirl and hiccup is all wtf?? because he didn't experience the dreams and it's a slow process but jack is willing to wait because hic is his soulmate</p><p>OR</p><p>That one reincarnation idea I had that I tried to write months and months ago that I failed to continue writing and made into a not!fic because I can.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(Not!Fic) Backtrack to the Start

**Author's Note:**

> i don't really know what i was thinking of that i ended up thinking of not!fics but i ended up thinking of them and kind of remembered this reincarnation au and decided that hey  
> i could make this into a not!fic
> 
> (p.s. nagareboshi wrote a [much better version of this reincarnation au](http://nagareboshi22.tumblr.com/tagged/Reincarnation-AU) except it never finished either ;-; if you were to choose whether to read mine or hers, read hers uwu)

He’s talking to Jamie when he enters Coffee Bean Bros so he doesn’t see him standing by the cashier. When he does look up, the first things he notices are pale green eyes and he almost gets a heart attack.

"Welcome to Coffee Bean Bros. What would you like to order?" the brunette asks them politely and that voice— _his_  voice—makes him shiver.

Jack can’t answer because he’s  _here, he is_   **real** , and he might faint because it seems like his heart has stopped beating and he’s going to drop if blood isn’t pumped into his head—he already feels woozy. He opens his mouth but his throat is clogged so nothing is coming out, but  _he’s_  looking at him expectantly and it feels like that expectancy is soon going to turn into unease soon and he needs to say something, he  _needs_  t—

"You’re not Cas."

The cashier raises a brow, an impressively expressive look on his face that says _that’s why you’re being weird?_ , but he snorts amusedly after a moment. “No, I’m not," he answers drily. “She quit a while back and I’ve been working here for a few days now."

He makes a sound, less of understanding and more dazed.

The cashier draws his mouth into a straight line and starts tapping a toneless beat on the counter, his shoulders hunching a bit. “Mm, yup." He nods his head and puckers his lips in discomfort.

The staring doesn’t stop for a while and it wouldn’t have stopped if Jamie didn’t nudge him hard. He stumbles and seemingly comes back to, his eyes clearing, and his hand shoots up.

"Hi, I’m Jack!"

This time, both of the brunette’s eyebrows rise up. “Uhm," he coughs, “nice to meet you, Jack."

"You too!"

He nods again, awkwardly, and halfheartedly smiles at the brown-haired boy in front of him. He flexes and curls his fingers on the counter and then carefully lifts his right hand and curls it again, this time around Jack’s. He shakes it minutely. "…hi, Jack," he says, dropping his hand quickly.

Jack stares at him, smiling somewhat hesitantly, shyly hopeful.

He sucks in his lips before suddenly releasing them. “Yeah, uhmm, Hiccup. Call me—my name is Hiccup."

Jack relaxes at the name and smiles a lot more lopsidedly, a softness hinted in it that seems to make things more awkward for Hiccup. “Hiccup," he murmurs to himself.

Said boy clears his throat loudly.

Jamie, who had been forgotten by the pair, finally pushes Jack out of the way, fed up with the utter ridiculousness of it all. He steps forward towards the counter.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too, Hiccup," he replies. “One chocolate mint frappe and two oatmeal cookies for Weirdo and a mocha cappuccino for me."

Hiccup finally eases now that Jack isn’t in front of him. “Will they be served together or separately?"

Jamie purses his lips before deciding, “together."

Hiccup nods. “Right, one chocolate mint frappuccino, two chocolate cookies, and one mocha capuccino for—Jack?" Hiccup winces a little at the name.

"For Jamie," he corrects, pointing to himself.

The last of the tension is released from Hiccup’s body at that. “For Jamie. Thank you. That will be—"

Jamie turns back to Jack to look at him incredulously.

Jack inhales deeply and turns away from the multitude of freckles and digs his hands deep into his pockets. His heart continues to thud.

* * *

That night, Jack dreams of Hiccup. Or rather, the Hiccup then, Henry Lennox.

His dream is of Henry in a sleek, black tux and a bright, nervous smile on his face. His hair is shorter here, swept artfully to the right, and there is a hint of stubble on his chin.

They’re both barely older, Hiccup 18 and Jack turning that in a number of months. Jack is in a tux as well, but there’s a yellow flower pinned on his coat. He doesn’t remember the name of the flower but it has five petals and there are little petals that remind him of whiskers at the middle. The people around him are either whispering or hushing those that are. Jack continues to stare at Hiccup.

The room then fills with the melody of a piano and he turns to watch as Ash walks up the aisle, a trail of white flowing behind her. She looks gorgeously amazing and when he sees Henry lean towards her to whisper in her ear, he knows he’s telling her this.

The wedding is beautiful and so is Henry’s smile, beatific and shining. His heart warms at the sight of joy in Henry’s face and he claps the hardest when husband and wife kiss.

* * *

When he wakes up, his heart is yearning and he breathes in deep to calm his nerves. He decides to go to the coffee shop again today.

* * *

The dreams started when he was thirteen. Young, foolish (although he’s still quite so until now), and still unsure of who he is exactly.

The first time it happens, Jack dreams of a field, patches of soil peaking through the gaps of grass and the sunlight streaking his skin, and the sound of a boy running and screaming, “Jens!”

The boy is charging towards him, his brown hair flying all over his face. His face is bright red and he’s yelling things Jack can't understand in his unconscious mind. He’s livid, hands whizzing everywhere. Jack cuts him off with a laugh and the boy—man, perhaps, now that the brunette is closer—is irked even more, flexing his fingers in front of him.

Jack—rather, Jens, at least in the dream—cuts him off again, this time the chuckle mixed with a jibe. They go through a brief back-and-forth before the man seems fed up and turns away.

Jens laughs and moves closer to drape an arm around the other’s shoulders, somehow managing to because the brunette’s shoulders are hunched. He leans towards him and rustles his shoulder.

“Oh, come off it, Hamish! It was mere jesting!”

Hamish Horrendous rolls his eyes—seemingly with his whole body—and shakes his head. He sighs a sigh upon sighs and Jens snorts at his melodrama. He coerces him to relax through a series of jabs and teasings and, unknowingly, manages to sit himself down on the rock he was perched upon and drag Hamish to squeeze himself in.

Hamish sighs again and Jens grins at the sign of resigned disgruntlement—Hamish has always managed to make that look appealing, though it might be that Jens simply finds Hamish himself appealing and Hamish has the tendency to wear this face. He drops his hand but does not leave Hamish’s space. Rather he stays leaning on him and holds his wrist and the bottom of his palm with his hand.

The sun’s rays have already warmed his skin when Hamish curls his fingers to touch the back of Jens’ hand.

* * *

He feels disoriented the morning after. He doesn’t know why he dreams that dream, he’s had dreams more vivid than that but they have never felt as real as this one does. The world feels too bright and he has to stand up, shake his head, and walk around before he’s able to gather his thoughts.

It’s the first, and he’s young, so he’s able to cast aside the ache niggling at his heart.

* * *

The second time is nowhere near as vivid, coming near a month after the first is dreamt.

It is of green eyes intent on his face, of charcoal covered fingers pressing lines against his jaw, of old, brown paper.

* * *

Even with the fogginess, as he is waking up, his hand reaches up to scrub of nonexistent charcoal from the rise of his cheekbones.

* * *

The third time is a mere week or two after the first.

It is of a young boy wearing a robe too big for his body who is staring at him from across the marketplace. It is of him being introduced to this young boy and his father and of watching the boy leave with his arms laden with paints and fruit.

But it is more than that.

It is also finding joy in sculpting, of anything and everything, the gods, his mother, a family, a story. Watching his hands weave and cut as eyes take shape and hair dances through the air.  It is finding that young boy again and watching him grow into a simple farmer, poor but content. Seeing other hands weaving through air to bring forth fruit and crop and growth.

It is also being of separate classes and being told to leave this one alone, you are of higher status. It is of ridicule for the boy’s lankiness and crooked teeth. It is later then for a seemingly lack of drive once the boy has grown into his body, the barest hints of muscle in the boy’s thighs and arms.

It is also of not caring and staying with the boy. Of sculpting the boy to show his true beauty. Of failing and of being jabbed for his woes. Of being told that the boy had no care for that and of being held in gratitude and care. Of finding true happiness in a quiet smile and warm hands.

It is of finding contentment and of fighting for the boy’s rights with his family. It is of hardships and of sculpting by day and tending by night. It is of hands and lips and stone and seed.

* * *

The fourth, fifth, and sixth all happen with the span of a few weeks and understandably so, as they are a chain of events.

The fourth is of a young man with a little baby girl carried in his arms. He is happy and loving and Jack congratulates him on a job well done. The man laughs—Henry, his name is—and jokes that he too should find his woman and have a beautiful young boy so that his little one can find another to play with.

The fifth is of news of Henry dying from a car accident and him assuming the role of the little girl’s pseudo-father. He tells baby Emily stories of her father and the girl learns to squeal as hard for him as she did for her father.

The sixth is of going to war and thinking fondly of his family and friends, of Ash and Emily, of his beloved friend. It is going to war and dying to the memory of Henry’s—and Emily's—green eyes.

* * *

It is only then, waking up to the burning image of those eyes, that he realizes that all these dreams may be connected. He thinks he may be dreaming of the same person but it makes no sense, for in each dream he is different and in each dream Jack feels for him differently.

But he remembers those eyes and his heart thuds. He doesn’t know what to do next.

* * *

Jack swings open the door of Coffee Bean Bros with a smile. It’s a good day for him, he’s nearly finished with his report, a few more tweaks and edits here and there, possibly an image or two more as well, and that means he’s free for the weekend. He’s had a nice sleep the previous night and though he doesn’t know what dream he had—and times he forgets are often disheartening, for he never knows if they are ever his memories— but he knows it was a good one, be it with his Hiccup or not. It doesn’t matter all that much anymore anyway now that his Hiccup is here and true, especially not now that his Hiccup is there by the counter, no barriers (other customers, that is, or in the rare occasion, other employees) between them.

He ambles to Hiccup, his face relaxed and a smile caught on his face. He stops just short of a step from the counter and smiles bigger at the boy in front of him. “Hi,” he chirps, perhaps a little breathlessly.

Hiccup, whose shoulders have already developed into a hunch upon seeing Jack, has the corners of his lips twitch up into something that could be considered a smile. "Hello, welcome to Coffee Bean Bros." He seems to twitch before his shoulders do twitch down and his smile grows bigger, if not any less tense.

Jack's mouth twitches, a clear indication of his want to say more to Hiccup, but he knows that Hiccup is still wary of him. He tries to appear less creepy, more _sane_ , but so far, the novelty of Hiccup hasn't worn and Jack can't help how he acts yet (truthfully, he may never get over the wonder that is Hiccup, but in time, he may hopefully learn to stop acting like it). He, instead, requests, "black coffee, please," as he frequently does.

Hiccup nods his head, the surprise having worn down around the third time he asked for it. The fact that their first meeting had him with a chocolate mint frap and that’s as far away from black coffee as they come. He loves sweet things, loves minty things too, and he doesn't always order black coffee but he's fond of the bitter, strong taste of it. Most people are incredulous when learning this and he doesn't understand, really. It's just coffee.

He pays as Hiccup slides a steaming mug, the rich scent of coffee beans at the tip of his tongue. He doesn't sit where the counter is in direct sight, though he could. Instead, he perches on a seat where, by the corner if his eyes, he can see thin, wiry arms and a thin face, little red freckles stark against the dreary gray, cream, and blue by the back of the boy.

* * *

The first time Jem Luisa meets the son of the owner, it’s to the murmurs of the other workers. Most of what he hears are whispers of surprise, after all, the late Mr. Hamilton’s eldest son is not quite known for his desire to inherit the Hamilton Company, others are gossips of confirmation that yes, that is the alleged young Hamilton. He looks up and he’s caught surprised.

The name Hunter Daniel Hamilton came to him as the name of a man with his head held high, strong in both body and demeanor, and perhaps a hint of arrogance in his wake. His title, and what’s more, the very image of his father, makes one think of one very massive and vast in air. The real young man, though, does not come as very encompassing. There is still confidence in his posture, tall and sure, but arrogance is not there. The man in front of him is talking to a young boy, one who’s been recently hired, Jem notices, about the machinery they’re using and his image cannot be anything but temperate.

When his name is called though by Mr. Hamilton, his image does become different. The gentleness leaves his expression and his shoulders square into a sign of reservedness. Father and son meet halfway and the distance between the pair and Jem may not hear them, but he can see the the weariness showing in the elder Hamilton’s face and the young Hamilton’s own closing off. His face twists to a smile, rueful yet frustrated at the same time, and Jem’s boss grows more and more disappointed. He watches as the emotions twist and turn in their faces, indignance and wariness and none before Hunter purses his lips, clearly done with the situation, and his father leaves in a huff.

Jem watches the younger Hamilton head off to another direction until he turns back to the steam engine and, wearing gloves, works through it.

* * *

Some time after Jack’s done with his coffee, he decides he should possibly leave now. So he stands up, swipes his thumb to catch the coffee smeared at the side of his mouth, and wipes it with a tissue. Hiccup looks up at the sound of the chair screeching and Jack, just then crumpling the napkin and throwing it unto the table, sends him a small smile.

“…bye, Hiccup.”

Hiccup sends him a smile as well, just as small but a little more uncertain. “Bye, Jack.”

* * *

Later that same day, Jem finds that the young Hamilton has migrated towards him and the machinery he’s working on. The sir watches as he twists and pulls and cranes the machine, silent against Jem’s sure motions, and out of the corner of Jem’s eye, he can see the man’s eyes flickering, as if he was assessing the entire scene.

“…why did you apply here?” Jem doesn’t know for sure but he thinks he can hear a bit of dryness in his voice.

Jem doesn’t pay attention to that and answers, “because I like machines.”

The young Hamilton raises a brow in question.

He turns to the other, gaze certain and straight. “I do. I want to learn how to use every one, how to fix them, how to _make_ them.”

The other relaxes completely at that. The slightest hint of judgment is washed away and he smiles, a little lopsidedly, at Jem.

“My name is Hunter.”

* * *

Jack would like to mention, whatever  _anyone_ says, that he found Hiccup in the grocery store purely by chance.

So he might’ve been on his bike, one leg over the seat, when he saw the other. He might’ve been in the process of going home, paper bag perched on the seat and leaning on the handle. And he might’ve toppled over—tripped, if you may, there had been no face planting whatsoever—his bike, stood up, straightened his clothes, and turned around back to the entrance of the store, his purchases forgotten on the seat.

(Well, it was just milk, anyhow.)

Jack bites his lip, shoulder hunched as he pretends to look through cans of tuna. Hiccup is over at the next aisle and, last Jack checked, scanning through noodle packs. There is a can in each of Jack’s hand, and he probably looks like a boy one his own for the first time, looking lost as he looks back and forth at the two choices blankly. One can is cheaper but the other is in pure olive oil and that’s a lot healthier, right? Olive oil is good for the health. So the one in olive oil is probably the better choice. He nods to himself and puts the two back, feeling accomplished for a moment before suddenly flustering because what is he even doing? He looks back at where Hiccup is and he finds him throwing a couple of packs into his cart and wheeling away. He yelps and immediately hides himself.

He feels like a creep, he _is_ a creep, and he should go out now and check if his milk has not yet been stolen.

[…]

So basically this was the fruition from this idea I came up found in [these replies](http://fangirltothefullest.tumblr.com/post/54227201003/miundy-foxy-please-someone-write-this-3) and made it as a sort of Coffee Shop AU too because I was really into that this time.

Hiccup and Jack have this ‘true love’ for each other that extends through their different lives. Their relationship may not be the same in every life, and they may not even share the romantic side of it, but there is this undeniable connection between the two in every life they share together.

It’s the present and Jack relives these lives—and mostly those moments with Hall, with Henry, with Hayden—in dreams. Sometimes vague, sometimes vivid beyond comprehension, sometimes long, sometimes short. They started when he was thirteen and there’s really no pattern for the dreams. Sometimes he has them more than once a day (as long his nap is long enough). It takes him roughly two months before he connects that these dreams are connected—although to be fair, he’d had six dreams within that period—and much much longer before he starts to think of this elusive H-guy that gave him weird feelings in the chest as someone concrete, hanging on the line between real or imaginary.

By the time he’s nearing seventeen, there’s this ache in his chest for that guy. He’s associated him with the best of feelings, no matter the context, so it’s not so farfetched that when he catches sight of those wonderful green eyes in that coffee shop he sometimes buys from, he flounders embarrassingly and reacts a little creepy.

That is, only for people who actually know of the dreams. Which is to say no one, really. It’s always been partly because he knows it’s weird and _he’s_ reacting weird, and partly because of an irrational need to keep him for himself.

So Hiccup reacts accordingly and is quite creeped out by this weird guy in front of him, and only growing more wary of him as the week passes by and he catches sight of the guy repeatedly in a week who is still acting really strange and still a little bit creepy.

Jack tries to visit Hiccup everyday, tries to wait a day or two before he visits again, but sometimes he can’t help himself, and Jamie, the nephew of one Aster Bunnymund who regrettably knows Jack one way or another and the guy he frequently babysits, along with Jamie’s sister, Sophie, has no problem talking about how much of a creeptastic creeping creeper Jack just really is and it only makes Jack dejected half the time.

It’s only these babysitting times that Jack can even afford to buy in Coffee Bean Bros. so much. Although, to be perfectly honest, sometimes Jack has to do a little scrounging so that he at least doesn’t look as _much_ as a weirdo entering the coffee shop for who knows how long and then leaving without having bought anything.

Jack doesn’t always catch Hiccup, it’s harder to understand his schedule when Jack tries not to show up so methodologically, and he probably stumbles upon Hiccup in the grocery store before he has the guy’s schedule memorized. And a near month is quite a while. More so for some than others.

He doesn’t really mean to be a legitimate stalker but he can’t quite say he has complete control of his actions around Hiccup even after a month, so of course he ends up following Hiccup into the store even though he’s just finished buying what he needed to. By some miracle, Hiccup doesn’t end up becoming aware of Jack’s pathetic pining ass throughout his shopping, and that had taken over half an hour.

Somehow, as if that incident made a domino effect, Jack ended up stumbling into Hiccup outside of the shop, because yes, for a month he really did only see Hiccup in the shop. The first time Hiccup sees Jack outside of Coffee Bean Bros. was outright caginess and Jack tries to assure Hiccup that, _no_ , Jack isn’t actually trying to follow him around, it was pure coincidence they were in the same area.

And perhaps it has something to do with Astrid and Merida’s comments a week or so back on Jack’s puppyish, if not hilariously weird, devotion to Hiccup and how the guy probably couldn’t—and would probably hurt _himself_ if he ever did—do anything necessarily bad to Hiccup, especially with how genuine he seemed to be for Hiccup, or perhaps it has to do with the genuineness shining through Jack’s face right now that Hiccup can’t really dispute, or perhaps it has to do with both, but Hiccup didn’t outright leave Jack in the park.

He may have not been the most forthcoming, but can anyone really blame him? The important thing is that, while dodgy, he  was there with Jack and let the interactions flow, or flow as much as they could.

It was a slow build to friendship, so painstaking and awkward and stiff. It’s hard to trust a guy who reacted to him like a creep on their first meeting and didn’t really stop being a creep after that, and Jack didn’t have any substantial interactions with this Hiccup before then and maybe sometimes couldn’t truly grasp that Hiccup _existed_ and was in awe of everything Hiccup entails.

By the time Jack’s classes starts, nearly a month and a half after the grocery incident, the two have formed a tentative friendship and by then, Jack had learned that Hiccup was an incoming junior in college and three years Jack’s senior. Hiccup feels farther and nearer both when Jack wakes up in the morning because it’s the first day of classes for his senior year in high school. But by then, at least, he has memorized Hiccup’s schedule like the back of his hand and Hiccup has agreed to tell him if there ever was a change of plans.

They do get closer, but they’re still not so close when Hiccup’s own classes start. Jack tries to draw as much comfort as he can in the fact that Hiccup’s college is local, that he doesn’t have to worry too much about long distance communication.

They talk, they converse, they call, they text, they meet, and who knows how many months later, they are at the peak of friendship. Jack knows so much about Hiccup, nearly everything, and he _loves_ Hiccup, he _adores_ him, and sometimes he just wants to kiss Hiccup’s face.

He doesn’t tell Hiccup about the dreams, doesn’t know how to, and has learned to grow scared to. Their relationship is near perfect, and he doesn’t want anything to ruin it. Hiccup has completely gotten over the weirdness of Jack, often kids him with names like creeper (it may have started when Hiccup found Jack sought out for Hiccup’s college without Hiccup’s knowledge, but they were great friends then, Jack made sure he wouldn’t do it a moment sooner than that), but Jack doesn’t want to push it.

It’s nearly a month before Hiccup’s finals, and Hiccup has gone to visit Jack as a sort of last hurrah before he goes all out for finals and they’re lying on the more secluded part of the park, uncaring of the ice cream dripping all over with their position.

Jack turns to Hiccup, who is chuckling in between licking his fingers from the sticky caramel ice cream, and his heart fills with so much— _so much_ , yearning, adoration, contentment, that he can barely think before his mouth grazes Hiccup’s, heart pounding in his ears. Seconds of bated breath tick, Jack’s kiss overwhelmingly soft and unsure, before Hiccup chuckles again and touches Jack’s cheek with wet, sticky fingers.

(It may still be a while after that when Jack shares about the dreams but hey, they’re quite far into the relationship and Hiccup can’t run away anymore. Quite frankly, Jack thinks he made the right decision.)

**Author's Note:**

> if anyone cares, i made a list of names for each era i thought of so far (although i assume that there are still other lives)
> 
> Time of the Greeks (maybe): Heron and Jayr  
> Viking Times/Smith&Shepherd: Hamish Horrendous and Jens  
> Colonial: Hugh (eww) Hall and Jonathan Overland  
> Industrial Revolution: Hunter Daniel Hamilton and Jeremiah Luisa  
> Victorian Era: Hayden Haddock III and Jefferson  
> WWII: Henry Lennox and James
> 
> if anyone cares enough, i might add in a chapter of the past lives' stories, or at least the ones i loosely thought of


End file.
